Mogambo [Region 2] | ![Mogambo [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517S7EWY0YL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: John Ford
Actors: Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Donald Sinden, Philip Stainton
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
Buy New: $19.46
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Rating:  28 reviews
Format: PAL
Language: English (Original Language)
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321900659222
Theatrical Release Date: October 9, 1953
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
This remake of the 1932 Red Dust is famous for using the very same romantic leading man--21 years after the fact. But when that leading man is Clark Gable, what's a little gray hair in the temples? Gable was certainly still the great strutting rooster of American movies in 1953, when Mogambo made him a safari guide juggling two much younger women. First up is good-time girl Ava Gardner, who's game for a little harmless romp with Gable after she gets stood up by a playboy in the African jungle. But when Grace Kelly--the proper wife of a visiting anthropologist (Donald Sinden)--arrives on the scene, a new affair begins. The location shooting is much in the vein of King Solomon's Mines, although the story is much more intimate. This feels like a bit of a holiday for Hollywood's top director, John Ford, and not one of his most committed pictures. Still, Ford's unparalleled eye for backlit exteriors and for the way people move around in rooms is on display, even when the script wobbles. People always joke about Gable being too old for this movie, but that doesn't take into account his durable movie-star appeal--he certainly looks every inch the Hemingwayesque hunter, and it's not that big a stretch to imagine Gardner or Kelly in the clinches with him. Indeed, he and Grace Kelly had an offscreen affair during shooting, graying temples or not. --Robert Horton
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
 Good Movie November 14, 2009
Kathryn (GA)
I am not a movie critic. I just know if I like a movie and if it entertains me. I liked this movie and it did entertain me. For those of you who like detailed reviews on movies, I realize this will not help you.
Safari Masterpiece:White trash goes to Africa by John Ford August 13, 2009
Alberto M. Barral (new york)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie set in the African savannah is actually a vehicle for a love triangle: Ava Gardner plays the brunette bombshell that arrives from New York, in high heels, ready for her closeup with an Indian Maharaja who does not show up. This is the tragedy of the film, as we miss seeing what she would have looked like strolling by the African landscape with a royal sari and a couple of pounds of cabochon emeralds in head ornaments. Clark Gable is the animal trapper and super macho of the jungle, in charge of the safari and Grace Kelly is the repressed wife of an English anthropologist who is there to study the language of the gorillas but would have been better off to concentrate on their sexual training instead as the minute they arrive he starts losing his wife to Gable's powerful and charismatic persona.
The film has beautiful moments showing off the landscape and the animals, but it's not great cinematography, it's the intrinsic beauty of the place that is there, the movie itself is like a play happening on top of it. The best acting roles go to the animals here: The trapped leopard that imitates Ava's walk back and forth on the float, the baby elephant who eats bananas from her hand playfully alongside a baby rhyno, both are trapped in an enclosure and will be sold for $5,000 each. There is also the Hippo that throws Ava off her seat with a nice spray of water, and the panther that attacks Grace Kelly and unfortunately, is shot down by Gable. Why do we feel that it would have been GREAT if the animal had gone inside the trap and had her for lunch?? Because by that point we can't stand her and also know that a glamorous obituary in the Times is all she needs to put her out of all trouble, permanently. From a Contemporary viewing point these animals are the true heroes of the movie. They stand by silent and graceful amidst this white trash that is there destroying their environment, polluting their air with their cigarettes and cars and either killing them or taking them to circus/zoos destinations. Real nice. The record is no better when it gets down to the treatment the natives get from this disfunctional crew of alcoholic, neurotic white contingent. The Africans get yelled at, have towels trown at them and are talked about pretty much in the same terms than the animals, yet they clearly have a much more dignified presence than the people they serve, when they stand up close the brutish barbarian is obviously the fat man with the gun. One deeply regrets that when they set out on the big canoes a pack pf hippos does not clash into them and drowns them all, which would be a more than happy ending for their misguided and abusive lives. Never before have I seen in a movie so clearly delineated the superiority of animals over humans, but this was surely not intentional.
There is also the 'civilizing' presence of a priest who is a clear demonstration even by the way he looks, that this religion is wrong for the people. The church he has managed to build inside a hut has the eerie atmosphere of a Martian compound so alien does it look within the environment, and it helps understanding why the new african nations, burdened with this well intentioned, yet cumbersome interventions, have such difficulties in making progress.
The love triangle is also more difficult to understand from our contemporary perspective, but here it is: Gable's character is enthralled by the idea of falling in love with a white, educated, upper class prude that flashes 'respectable upper class' form the first scene. Her get up alone is ridiculous: perfectly ironed silk kimonos, sweaters with pearl necklaces in the middle of the African heat (sometimes it went as high as 130 degrees while filming) though ideal for the Hamptons, one can not believe this would be possible in the middle of the jungle and makes one appreciate the hundreds of assistants that must have been present constantly changing costumes and wiping brows. Grace Kelly gives one of her best performances as this emotional invalid from Frigidity land that has accidentally awakened like a twisted spore in the midst of the heat and Gable's fertilizing testosterone presence. Her husband is so stereotyped he even dines in the hut in a tuxedo, you can figure out the rest, so one can not blame her for what happened. Ava had the most difficult role in portraying human values in a 'fallen woman' that looks like a fish out of water from the first scene. But she quickly adapts, and does a very good job at trying to seduce Gable> She is authetically convincing as a wholesome city hustler coming to grips with real deep emotions while looking absolutely ravishing. My favorite scene is of her atop a truck swaying and chanting with the natives creating her own choreography. Gable dominates the scenes with his trong presence, never was the title "King of Hollywood' been more tangible than in this film. The supporting cast of slobs that hang out around Gable evaporates from memory with the last screen credit.
 Not Quite What I Expected February 28, 2009
Angel
I stumbled across Mogamabo at the library before I got a chance to see Red Dust, which I had heard was excellent. The cover art riveted me, and I looked forward to seeing Ava Gardner as the smoldering temptress. Unfortunately, Gardner's character came across as sniveling and whiney. She appears to be immediately attracted to Clark Gable's character, but when he doesn't return her interest she becomes pouty and sullen. At least twice she ran away to cry, which would have been more understandable if she and Gable's character had ever communicated interest. I just wanted to shake her and say, "You're a beautiful woman. Tons of men would want you. Move on!" Her catty comments and continual attempts to get attention made her character reek of desperation and was quite unbecoming. She was not the strong female character that I am used to seeing in other classic movies. On top of that, I finally saw Red Dust, and there is just no comparison. Gardner does not hold a candle to Jean Harlow in this movie.
Then there is Grace Kelly's character. She is plain, and her waffling is annoying. She is just... boring. She even looked boring. In her other movies, I've found her quite beautiful, but in this movie she looked a little washed-out. Overall, I couldn't really tell why Gable's character would want either of these women.
On a more positive note, I enjoyed Gable's performance. It was interesting to compare to his earlier work in Red Dust. He had a youthful attractiveness in Red Dust that made it easy to see how he would be able to win over the women, and in Mogambo he seems to bring a sense of maturity to the role that changes the tone somewhat. Both performances were good. Additionally, the African scenery was beautiful.
All in all, I would recommend seeing Red Dust above Mogambo, but this is not the review of a Red Dust fanatic poo-pooing the remake; these were the impressions I had before seeing Red Dust, and seeing that movie only confirmed it. Mogambo is alright, but don't expect the best performances from Gardner and Kelly.
It's Ava Gardner's World...and Everyone Else Just Lives in It October 10, 2008
Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ava Gardner could hardly be considered anyone's second choice, but this is what director John Ford and screenwriter John Lee Mahin would have you believe in this overripe 1952 safari melodrama. Yet, she is the primary reason why this film is still worth a look 56 years later. Far more intuitively than Angelina Jolie these days, Gardner epitomized a primal sensuality and a hidden vulnerability, the combination of which was intoxicating in her prime. Ford captures this, as well as her dark beauty and sharp comedy sense, by casting her as smart-mouthed, carefree playgirl Eloise "Honey Bear" Kelly, who has come to a remote African outpost to meet up with a wealthy maharajah. Finding herself stood up, she is greeted by no-nonsense big game hunter Victor Marswell as she conveniently takes a shower al fresco. Before sparks can truly fly, a young British anthropologist and his prudish wife, Donald and Linda Nordley, arrive naively drawn to the flora and fauna.
Then a rather preposterous story turn occurs in which Marswell becomes smitten with Mrs. Nordley, and she with him since she swoons over the manly hunter over her milquetoast husband. Looking the patrician beauty that served her well during her brief movie career, a 24-year-old Grace Kelly plays Linda in typical melodramatic fashion. Her English accent is a bit overdone, and her character's motivations too simplistically presented for Kelly to shine, especially next to Gardner. As Marswell, the 52-year-old Clark Gable doesn't have quite the swagger he displayed so easily in his youth when he first played this role in 1932's Red Dust with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor in the Gardner and Kelly parts. However, it is a testament to his enduring appeal that he is at all convincing as a magnet for two much younger women.
But make no mistake that Gable, who has to maintain a stoic, man-of-mystery demeanor as Marswell, really hands the picture to Gardner. In particular, she has a fetching couple of scenes where she sings Robert Burns' "Comin' Through the Rye" and seems truly to enjoy interacting with the wild animals. It's all a hoot, and the location filming in Kenya and Uganda really brings the story to vibrant life. Ford handles the exotic background as well as he does Monument Valley in his classic westerns, and he makes sure to keep goosing the story with action elements so that the focus is not completely on the love triangle. Industry veteran Robert Surtees and David Lean's favorite cameraman Freddie Young shared cinematography responsibilities, and the look of the film is sumptuous even by MGM's high standards. The only extra with the 2006 DVD is the original theatrical trailer.
Magam, Bo?? September 1, 2008
Magier (virginia)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
the magnificent Ava Gardner, with Gable and Kelly along for the ride, make this a delight.....not exactly Out of Africa in scope or style, it is 50's moviemaking at its best.....great Africa sights, an ok story, and the fabulous Ava will provide any but the dullest with memorable fun.......can't be helped deficit is lack of commentary tracks by stars and directors......strongly recommended to anyone over 18........
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
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